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family and dignitaries arrived with the funeral memento to treasure forever. I am grateful I was
cortège after the private family funeral at able to participate and will cherish forever my
Ebenezer Baptist that morning. We arrived memories of this historic, once in a lifetime
early Tuesday morning for our final instructions experience.
and realized people had camped out on the
Quadrangle overnight and were everywhere,
including in the trees. We secured the area as
instructed but after hours of waiting folks
decided they wanted to sit in the VIP seats and
simply pushed us aside and sat down. It took
the Morehouse Police and SCLC to move them
just in time for the arrival of the family and
dignitaries. Dr. Mays gave the eulogy and
Mahalia Jackson sang but I remember little
else. There were more people than I had ever
seen in one place, it was shoulder to shoulder
everywhere, a sea of faces. Even so, there was
quiet reverence, no violence and no fear. My
final memories are of King’s interment at South
View Cemetery, Atlanta' oldest Black cemetery
chartered in 1866 and my ancestral cemetery.
Kings parents were buried there. Again, the
crowd was enormous as he was laid to rest
amid mountains of flowers of every hue. After
the clergy and family left, within minutes the
florals were stripped clean by those wanting a
